CITY SECTION : BASKETBALL PLAYOFFS : 3-A DIVISION : Gray’s 36 Help Granada Hills Advance, 93-77

Using his decided height advantage, Gary Gray, a 6-9 senior center, scored a game-high 36 points and grabbed 26 rebounds to lead Granada Hills High past Roosevelt, 93-77, in a 3-A Division playoff game at Granada Hills on Friday night.

Roosevelt employed a zone most of the game but still could not control Gray, who made 70% of his shots.

“It was not a picturesque game, and it was nothing to write home about,” Granada Hills Coach Bob Johnson said. “But I’ll take the win and we’ll be ready to play North Hollywood next Wednesday.”

The Roosevelt player who was assigned the unenviable task of stopping Gray--when the situation dictated--was 6-3 Chris Williams.

“When we went to our half-court game, that’s when we really played well,” Johnson said. “We had a big height advantage, and we should have continued to use it. When we didn’t go into the half-court game, we were getting points on long passes.”

Granada Hills (17-4) took a 17-14 lead into the second quarter. Roosevelt (14-9) stayed close early behind the hot shooting of 6-2 guard David Mendez, who scored 22 points.

Granada Hills senior forward Sam Puathasnanon had 17 points, 6 rebounds and 7 assists.

San Fernando 73, Eagle Rock 53--Shelton Boykin had 19 points and 10 rebounds, Tory Stephens scored 18 points and Joe Mauldin had 15 points and seven assists for San Fernando at Eagle Rock.

With the score tied midway through the first quarter, San Fernando (14-8) scored the next 16 points and took a 23-7 lead at the start of the second quarter.

University 54, Poly 48--University went out to a seemingly insurmountable 20-point lead in the third quarter, then had to come back to win at Poly.

Poly (12-9) took a two-point lead with 3 1/2 minutes to go but couldn’t hold it. Poly was hurt on two fronts--in the first quarter, by poor shooting (2 of 10), and Jorge Ramos was forced to sit out most of the opening half with three fouls.

Birmingham 59, Venice 57 OT--Adam Zuckerman made two free throws with four seconds left in overtime to give Birmingham (20-2) the win.

North Hollywood 47, Marshall 43--Ralph Topps and Dominic Nappi each made two free throws in the final minute to lead North Hollywood at home.

Nappi led North Hollywood (15-6) with 15 points and nine rebounds. Topps added eight rebounds.

North Hollywood held a 32-31 lead at the end of the third quarter, but Marshall was able to tie the score, 43-43, with a minute left in the game. Topps then hit the winning free throws.

Grant 40, Lincoln 37--Danny Enowitz scored 16 points and Mike Parker had 14 points and nine rebounds for Grant (11-10).

Craig Green led Lincoln (17-5) with 11 points. Mike Freed and Jason Schirn took turns guarding Lincoln’s David Gray, who was averaging 24 points a game, and held him to seven points.